"Dick Cheney is a towering statesman by contrast"

[FourScore]

Obama Must Call for Palin's Removal from the Ticket
Obama: write off their bile, their rage—and do what's right. Palin and McCain are a danger to the country, and nothing less. Now is the time to say it, and to say it bluntly.

by Rip Rense

The choice of Palin was made with breathtaking disregard for the safety and welfare of the nation. To quote W.C. Fields, The Democrats must "take the bull by the tail and face the situation." Sarah Palin must be dealt with, and without restraint. No more of this focus-group pre-figuring all the language, all the angles, of each carefully staged "attack." That will focus-group Obama right out of the White House.

The fact is that the woman is now the central issue of the campaign. The fact is that the woman is unfit for office.

Obama must call for her removal from the ticket in the interests of national security, and call into question McCain's impetuous, imperious, nutball "judgment."

He must make the correct and compelling case that putting this corrupt amateur governor with zero foreign policy credibility in direct line to become president should McCain's health give out is wildly irresponsible, and jeopardizes the health and safety of the nation.

Palin is under investigation for ethics violations in Alaska related to allegations that she used her office to try to fire an ex-brother-in-law state trooper (of all things bush league!). She spends Alaska taxpayer money to take her family on trips, to fund her visits to sporting events, to pay for her husband's jaunts. Total for her husband and daughters alone (including commuting from home to work): $43,490. She bills the state a travel per diem when she spends nights at home in Wasilla (of all things bush league!)

She is withholding e-mails that pertain to so-called "Troopergate," and reportedly implicate her husband in anti-law enforcement union influence peddling. She believes that so-called creationism (read: Bible scripture) should be taught in schools. She tried to get certain library books banned while mayor of Wasilla, then threatened the librarian when her request was refused.

She lies easily, from claiming to have stopped the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" to saying that Obama opposes nuclear power and offshore drilling, to boasting that she opposes government "earmarks," when in fact she has sought and won hundreds of millions of fat Washington dollars. She tried to cover-up her 17-year-old daughter's pregnancy, and to arrange for a quickie marriage prior to the Republican National Convention. She may even, if recent reports in the National Enquirer are accurate, have had an "affair," as the polite term goes, with her husband's ex-business partner.

Need more?

She belongs to a weird "end times" Evangelical church that believes God has designated Alaska as a refuge for the "annointed." She has called the disastrous Iraq occupation "a task from God," has exhorted church members to pray for an Alaska natural gas pipeline, a project that she insanely labels "God's will." There are reports circulating that she has referred to Obama as "Sambo," and eskimos as "Arctic Arabs."

Then there is her champion, callous hypocrisy concerning teen pregnancy and birth control. Her daughter...is five or six months pregnant, probably by a local lout whose Myspace page (long pulled) says he enjoys "fuckin' chillin'." Yet Palin has cut funding to pay for housing—housing—for teen mothers. Now there's compassionate conservatism.

SNIP

The woman is a scandal circus. And we've probably only seen the first ring.

SNIP

McCain is a famously impulsive, high-rolling candidate (who loves to play craps). He has caved in to advisors and picked a frighteningly unqualified person to become vice-president of the United States.Palin's appointment, in other words, is not just a matter of an opponent's policies being "dangerous," "wrong-headed," or various other conventional campaign cliches. It is a matter of a famously impulsive, high-rolling candidate (who loves to play craps) caving in to advisors and picking a frighteningly unqualified person to become vice-president of the United States. Dick Cheney is a towering statesman by contrast. It is a matter of aged McCain throwing caution to the wind—when caution was never more required—and grabbing a nice-looking, young piece of baggage without so much as a routine FBI background check. All the McCain aides did was Google Palin, which is slightly more thorough than making goo-goo eyes at her.

The choice was not merely a cynical grab for hard-core reactionary extremist right-wing Evangelicals. It was not merely a cynical ploy to make the campaign look progressive and compel more ladies to vote for the increasingly corpse-like McCain. It was not merely a cynical means of sexing up a campaign that would otherwise have been led by boring old white guys (God help us—Joe Lieberman.) It was all of these things—but with breathtaking disregard for the safety and welfare of the nation.

SNIP

So write them off, Obama---write off their bile, their rage—and do what's right. Palin and McCain are a danger to the country, and nothing less. Now is the time to say it, and to say it bluntly. The clock is ticking on this election. If they are elected, the clock will be ticking on whatever is left of the country.

http://baltimorechronicle.com/2008/091008Rense.shtml